Question

Business Law

For this unit, the discussion forum focuses on business ethics. Please find and summarize an article related to one of the topics listed below.  Please limit your comments to 500 words or less and include your personal opinion on the content of the article.

1. Business ethics: Encouraging whistleblowing

Answer 1

(According to an article by Antonino Vaccaro, Associate Professor of Business Ethics at IESE Business School)

Corporate malfeasance may not be at the forefront of everyone's mind when we enter the thick of the holidays. But as Facebook and other tech giants (and more than a few governments) continue to reel from various scandals over everything from data protection to gender equity, it's clear that managerial interference, if not outright corruption, is a problem that seldom leaves the business news cycle. Yes, bribery costs are high all year round and around the globe. Despite the almost rock star aura surrounding many high-profile whistleblowers, however, the discovery of bribery within one's workplace remains many daunting obstacles. These include the obvious risks of reporting on subordinates and potentially reducing benefits to your own jobs. Ideally, a company would be so proactive in instilling an open honesty culture that it would be unnecessary to whistleblow. But corruption is all too common, sadly. Here are some steps the company can take to minimize it.

1. Open a hotline for your mobile: It's an easy way to give workers an abundantly clear emphasis on organizational openness. It also allows those who fear being branded disloyal to talk through a more private channel by openly coming forward. Such staff may find this particularly soothing if what they have encountered is a violation.

2. Train Morally: This is not intended in any intrusive way, but is meant to incorporate moral and ethical knowledge to expose corruption and misconduct when it is encountered by employees. Highlighting the importance of collective good, human and corporate principles is a particularly persuasive way of developing an ethical workforce.

3. Separate privacy and anonymity (Then add both of them): Anonymity and choosing for it is important to promote whistleblowing and an open corporate culture. While this may seem like common sense, there is an anonymous source for a mere 14 percent of globally recorded fraud. In addition, some jurisdictions ban anonymous reporting. Nonetheless, if necessary, anonymous networks will greatly increase the chances of transparency so accurate, truthful communication. After an anonymous statement has been made, privacy comes into play. And it is important to inspire others in the future to support whistleblowers of the present day.

4. Leverage financial incentives: It will boost ethical change.The foundation of accountability is a company-wide sense of morality and moral responsibility. However, discounting the appeal of financial rewards for whistleblowing would be naive.

5. Look inside. Focus outside. Internal (i.e., hotline) and external networks can and should work in tandem to expose bribery. Though, it is easy for external networks to inspire future whistleblowers to come forward and address wrongdoing. These networks provide a deeper security layer of anonymity.

In my opinion, the organization should encourage whistleblowers by giving financial incentives, it will boost their honesty. The organization should maintain privacy about whistleblowers , so that they may not be affected by the actions of colleagues or superiors. If possible, the organization can maintain a team to look after these activities to minimize bribery in the workplace.

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